To The Editor:
A few years ago the Shrewsbury government banned hunting in the borough bowing to pressure from a few residents. After realizing their mistake the ordinance was reversed this past summer to allow bow hunting from elevated stands. Now, a few residents again are trying stop hunting. Prior to the opening of the archery deer season this past September; many neighborhoods in Shrewsbury had become overrun with deer, roaming people’s yards in herds day and night. While I don’t have an exact count, it would be safe to say that between 50 and 100 deer have been harvested in just two months by bow hunters in elevated stands. That’s a lot of deer in such a short time. Many of these deer have been donated to a local food pantry. The hunters pay the butchering costs. The stop hunting proponents seem to disregard the well known problems of high deer abundance: increased deer/vehicle collisions, over browsed vegetation (forget having a garden), lawns covered with deer feces and abnormally high occurrences of Lyme disease. The hunting method used in Shrewsbury is allowed by New Jersey law and proven to thin swelling deer herds in residential areas. It causes no damage and doesn’t cost the general public a cent. The same cannot be said when deer hunting is prohibited.
Tim Shaheen
Locust
